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EdicyMy discovery to the importance of a 'gameful' innovation strategyAs an innovation researcher, completing my postgraduate degree in Innovation Management at Central Saint Martins College of Arts and Design, I have dedicated my dissertation topic in the area of organisational learning by adapting theories in game design and play as an innovation strategy for organisations to experience a culture of innovation and therefore understand the importance of nurturing an innovation culture from within.&nbsp;<div><br/></div><div>There is a pressing need for leaders of organisations to find alternative ways to reinvent our work environments and activities in a way that could provide enjoyable, non-exhaustive motivations. Leaders can adapt theories of game design and play into daily work processes as an innovation strategy to nurture a culture of innovation. Organisations must understand that they must first tackle innovation internally before they are able to deliver innovation externally.</div><div><br/></div><div>The review below outlines the journey of discovery in this area of research.</div><br /><br /><object style="width:550px;height:389px"><param name="movie" value="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf?mode=mini&amp;autoFlip=true&amp;embedBackground=%23f0f3f5&amp;printButtonEnabled=false&amp;backgroundColor=%23222222&amp;documentId=120720215434-adee022ca1fe4f7b89dc2c617e7d2610"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="menu" value="false"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"><embed src="http://static.issuu.com/webembed/viewers/style1/v2/IssuuReader.swf" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" menu="false" wmode="transparent" style="width:550px;height:389px" flashvars="mode=mini&amp;autoFlip=true&amp;embedBackground=%23f0f3f5&amp;printButtonEnabled=false&amp;backgroundColor=%23222222&amp;documentId=120720215434-adee022ca1fe4f7b89dc2c617e7d2610"></object><div><br/></div>Villie TsangWed, 07 Nov 2012 14:48:21 +0200http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/article-2
http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/article-2A Gameful Workplace: Creative Hybridization<p><p>Boredom is a widely recognised ‘organisational symptom’ as result of a badly structured system. Consequently, we become disengaged and dissatisfied in our daily lives within an organisation. We spend more than half of our lifetime working in&nbsp;conditions that do not promote our well-being. This begs the question: Are we actually happy?&nbsp; Why then, do most organisations provide merely exhaustive work systems often driven by extrinsic motivations such as money, promotions and bonuses?</p>
<p>There is a pressing need for leaders of organisations to find alternative ways to reinvent our work environments and activities in a way that could provide enjoyable, non-exhaustive motivations. Leaders can adapt theories of game design and play into daily work processes as an innovation strategy to nurture a culture of innovation. Organisations must understand that they must first tackle innovation internally before they are able to deliver innovation externally.</p></p><br /><br />
<p><img src="/photos/creative-hybridization-diagram.jpg" width="548" height="392" alt="" class="frktlse-img" /></p><p><a href="/files/creative-hybridization-diagram.pdf" target="blank">Enlarge</a></p><p><br/></p><p>Day-to-day operations of an organisation are dependent on its internal climate. The status of the organisational climate influences organisational process such as communication, problem-solving, decision-making and psychological processes of self-development and motivation. New paradigms and increasing complexity in the business environment are raising the need to nurture a culture of innovation. A supportive environment which encourages innovation from its employees will most likely yield an organisational climate which in turn affects organisational creativity, motivation and emotional engagement levels, and therefore has a positive effect on organisational performance. The main focus of this study is to highlight how organisations can adapt theories in game design and play as an innovation strategy to help leaders understand the importance of nurturing a culture of innovation.&nbsp;</p><p><br/></p><p>A common phenomenon has been spotted across many work places that the majority of us have experienced—boredom. Many of us have experienced a phase of high excitement at the start of their new jobs, but gradually fall into a long term phase of boredom. Although this does not happen for everyone, however we do see boredom everywhere, and it is "a by-product of poorly structured systems" (Dignan, 2011). Very often we sink into a state of boredom, and surprisingly, we grow quite fond of this state fairly quickly and easily—before we know it, it becomes the norm. So how much time does an average person spend in a lifetime working&nbsp;in a typical corporation. Considering an average working week is 40 hours in the classic nine-five formula, an average person's career spans across 44 years (starting at age 21 and retires at 65), average human life expectancy in developed countries is 78 years—according to these facts, we spend about 56.4% of our lifetime in 'working' mode. This begs the question: Are we actually happy?&nbsp;A published study conducted by University of Rochester in 2009 concluded that extrinsically motivated activities do not contribute to happiness at all (McGonigal, 2011), and in fact, has adverse effects on one's well-being. According to this, that means&nbsp;we spend more than half of our lifetime working in&nbsp;conditions that do not promote our well-being. Positive psychologist, Mihaly Czikszentmihalyi argued that the failure of our current "systems"—schools, offices, factories and other everyday environments—to provide flow has become a serious moral issue. Flow, by definition is the state in which people are fully engaged in an activity that provides most pleasurable, satisfying and meaningful emotional state we can experience. Flow inducing activities are what psychologists describe as ‘autotelic work’—self-motivated, self-rewarding with a primary function to provide enjoyable experiences and lead us to a state of optimal experience. Can we reinvent our working environments and activities in a way that could be enjoyable and hard working at the same time?</p>
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<p>Current work places lack the fundamental elements of autotelic work which is required in today’s organisations in order to tackle the increased intensity and stress as a result of globalisation and technological advancements. When we are intrinsically motivated through autotelic activities, we create conditions for a structured learning environment, combined with intrinsically motivated challenges and a sense of autonomy. According to Czikszentmihalyi concept of flow, “human beings achieve a state of optimal experience when our skills are continually in balance with the challenges we face” (Dignan, 2011). It is when challenges are aligned with clear realistic goals, supported with resources and the people you work with, the workforce can then unleash its potential to increase organisational performance, without suppressing creativity and positive organisational energy. This outlines the basis of my proposed solution: a new way of working through building collaborative synergies.&nbsp;</p>
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<h3><b>The Alternative</b></h3>
<p>One highly promising alternative to tackle common ‘organisational symptoms’ such as boredom, disengagement and dissatisfaction is to adapt theories in game design and play into daily work processes to provide flow-inducing activities to nurture an innovation culture. However, this alone, is not enough to sustain the well-being of workers in prolong periods of time. It requires the interplay of myriad of factors to create a collaborative synergies within relationships. Some key factors include adaptive management style, collaborative organisational structure and supportive climate, leadership that promotes trust, while harnessing the power of collective ambition. It is in these collaborative synergies that result in non-exhaustive work systems leading to innovative practice. To deliver innovation externally, an organisation must first innovate internally.</p>
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<p>A new area of research already exists in the landscape to prove that organisations can successfully employ methods rooted in the act of play and game mechanics to non-game activities (such as organisational processes) to change employees’ behaviour with the aim to increase engagement and motivation, both on an individual and collective level. Analyst, Brian Burke, from at Gartner Inc., an information technology research and advisory company based in United States explains this concept that is now widely known as ‘gamification’ — it is “the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change” (2011). Organisations have began to understand the value of game mechanics and it has now become an “important and powerful new strategy for influencing and motivating groups of people” (Bunchball Inc., 2011) leading to innovative practice. Positive psychologists, game developers and designers, as well as business management and leadership researchers have been unpacking the emerging relationships between existing theories already developed within their domains.&nbsp;</p>
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<p>I have explored in depth new ways to build collaborative synergies through adapting theories in game design and play to rebuild traditional organisational structures and cultures into applicable ‘organisational systems’ that addresses the common ‘organisational symptoms’ to increase performance and nurture a culture of innovation. Figure 1 illustrates the overview of my research outcomes, which highlights the practical implications of the proposed solution. The synthesis of these findings can be applied to three different levels in organisations: &nbsp;</p><ol><li>organisational climate;&nbsp;</li><li>psychological climate of employees</li><li>human resources development. The figure below shows an overview of the sources of data used conducted throughout this study. This includes a case study on my prior involvement in business process innovation as I have co-designed&nbsp; transformational game, <a href="http://www.changeplaybusiness.com/">Change Play Business</a>, with an organisation called The Thinking Hotel.&nbsp;</li></ol>
The ultimate aim was to generate new theory from selected concepts of interest (Gamestorming, Design Thinking, Creativity and Flow) and identify patterns to further understand how organisations can foster both creative environments and innovative potential as an effective strategy for businesses to remain relevant in this current business climate—an era of risk, instability and complexity. Most importantly, how can we translate this into businesses with conventional organisational structures and processes? How do we communicate to traditional management executives why this is important and how can we demonstrate its impact? Through this, we can convey the importance of nurturing a culture of innovation as a strategy to regain competitive advantage in today’s complex climate.<div><br/></div><div><img src="/photos/methodology-diagram.jpg?1342099901861" width="548" height="422" alt="" class="frktlse-img" /><br/></div><div><a href="/files/sources%20of%20documentation.pdf" target="blank">Enlarge</a><br/></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div>Villie TsangThu, 12 Jul 2012 13:05:15 +0300http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/a-gameful-workplace-creative-hybridization
http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/a-gameful-workplace-creative-hybridizationFun and work, why must they be mutually exclusive?<div><img src="/photos/CPB-Lisbon1.jpg" width="548" height="366" alt="" class="frktlse-img" /><br/></div><div><span style="text-align: center; "><i><font size="1">Change Play Business: Gamified Business Process Innovation.</font></i></span></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div>Many believe that serious work entails long hours of hard work, late nights, never-ending revisions, stress—all major killers of creativity that results in low performance levels.&nbsp;<br /><br /><div>We often hear the serious co-worker say ”We are doing serious business and don’t have time for fun at work.” — one of the most common arguments encountered by Mario Herger when facing clients in his area of work around gamification (most designers like to call it ‘gameful design’ or ‘meaningful play’). There are many ways to counter such an argument, he suggests that you could ask why the person considers work and fun to be mutually exclusive. The difference between serious work and serious play is the ‘fun’ factor—the integration of fun theory and flow theory in the process of work as a means to increase engagement and motivation is becoming increasingly important for the well-being of your employees to yield better performance and innovative potential.<br/></div><div><br/></div><div>So what exactly is gamification? Analyst, Brian Burke, from at Gartner Inc., explains this concept as “the broad trend of employing game mechanics to non-game environments such as innovation, marketing, training, employee performance, health and social change” (2011). It is only recently that organisations have began to understand the value of game mechanics and it has now become an “important and powerful new strategy for influencing and motivating groups of people” (Bunchball Inc., 2011) leading to innovative practice. Gartner Inc. predicts</div><div><br/></div><blockquote style="border-image: initial; "><div><i>“By 2015, more than 50 percent of organizations that manage innovation processes will gamify those processes…By 2014, a gamified service for consumer goods marketing and customer retention will become as important as Facebook, eBay or Amazon, and more than 70 percent of Global 2000 organizations will have at least one gamified application.”&nbsp;</i></div></blockquote><div><br/></div><div>Games are now widely recognised as an effective way to overcome common problems such as boredom, disengagement, and dissatisfaction, which have been proven to affect organisational performance, creative and innovative potential. In the past few years, there is an increasing number of businesses out there (Bunchball Inc., Gametrainers) providing gamification services to help organisations frame problems as ‘challenges’ within a game world by using game mechanics driven by game dynamics. Bunchball Inc. gives a simple explanation of the both &nbsp;these terms. &nbsp;</div><div><br/></div><blockquote style="border-image: initial; "><div><i>“Game mechanics are the various actions, behaviors, and control mechanisms that are used to “gamify” an activity—the aspects that, taken together, create a compelling, engaging user experience. The compelling, motivational nature of this experience is, in turn, the result of desires and motivations we call game dynamics.”&nbsp;</i></div></blockquote><div><br/></div><div>Examples of game mechanics are<i> “points, levels, challenges, virtual goods and spaces, leader boards, gifts and charity”</i>. Game dynamics include<i> “desires for reward, status, achievement, self-expression, competition and altruism” </i>(White paper: Gamification 101 from Bunchball Inc). The application of this new way of working is flexible and highly suitable to many as these needs and desires are shared across generations, demographics, cultures and genders. The challenge is in designing the an experience to harness these innate desires through creating engaging challenges that would channel the participants’ energy into achieving clearly defined goals. This new way of working is an extremely powerful and effective method to tackle exhaustive modes of working, without sacrificing creative quality and productivity.</div>Villie TsangSat, 28 Apr 2012 22:50:51 +0300http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/article-1
http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/article-1Group Creativity and Innovative Potential<font size="2">Studies have shown that creativity directly affects innovative potential. But what factors impedes or promotes group creativity in an organizational context?&nbsp;</font><br /><br /><div>Large corporations often operate within a rigid, inflexible organizational structure that is governed by traditional approaches to management. After reading works on creativity and engagement in an organizational context, I've found some preliminary relationships that require further decoding <i>(Fig. 1)</i>. The main areas which have direct impact on innovative potential in an organization are Group Dynamics, Climate and Environment.&nbsp;</div><div><br/></div><div><img src="/photos/GroupCreativityMap-v2.png" alt="" width="548" height="495" class="frktlse-img" /><br/></div><a href="/files/GroupCreativityMap-factorsS.pdf" target="blank">Enlarge</a><br/><img src="/photos/divider-grey-1.gif" alt="" width="548" height="6" class="frktlse-img" /><br/><i>Fig.1 &nbsp; What Affects Group Creativity</i><div><br/></div><div><br/></div><div>Studies have shown that Group Dynamics is one of the key themes identified to have a great effect on innovative potential within a team in an organization. The main constituent of Group Dynamics is&nbsp;<i style="font-weight: bold; ">Diversity—</i>a crucial element for fostering creativity and therefore promote innovative outcomes. There are 3 areas in which individuals within a team could be diverse—functional, information and cognitive. Diversity in these 3 areas could substantially increase the breadth and depth of a team's diversity, which in turn supports higher creative potential.&nbsp;</div><div><br/></div><div>If we look deeper into the diagram above, what does this all mean? How does this relate back to our daily work life and processes within our own&nbsp;organization?</div><div><img src="/photos/groupCreativity-rating.png" alt="" width="548" height="398" class="frktlse-img" /></div><div><a href="/files/groupCreativity-rating.pdf">Enlarge</a></div><div><img src="/photos/divider-grey-1.gif" alt="" width="548" height="6" class="frktlse-img" /><br/><i>Fig.2 &nbsp; How does this relate to our work life?</i><br/></div>Villie TsangTue, 08 Nov 2011 20:24:47 +0200http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/article
http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/articleField work at IDEO LondonSome time during the summer of 2011, in between prepping for crazy CPB Lisbon, drowning myself in book after book, taking time off to visit home, I reached out to Lydia Howland, Head of Human Factors at IDEO, to ask for potential&nbsp;opportunities&nbsp;for my upcoming research. She kindly introduced me to Sally Spinks, Organizational Designer at IDEO in London office. Today, I had a chance to speak with her, my first field work outing.&nbsp;<br /><br />When I arrived at IDEO, I was surprised by the warm welcoming of the receptionist, followed by Sally from around the corner. "Can I take your coat, would you like a drink?"—the receptionist asked, while Sally greeted me at the door. Walking into their office, it was nice to see how everyone seemed quite mellow, small groups occupying their own spaces within a relatively small, but comfortable working space. I realized most of the office had clusters of people in different working areas, hardly one working solo, apart from the receptionist. The atmosphere was friendly, warm, no odd stares from people around. They were all happily occupied. At that moment, I thought to myself, "So this is what IDEO <b><i>feels</i></b> like...". I've always read about it, heard about it, studied their work as secondary&nbsp;research...perhaps this is a part of what they&nbsp;preach—<i><b>'human-centered-ness'</b></i>. I walked through a narrow corridor, following Sally to one of the meeting rooms.<div><br/>I began introducing myself, a bit about where I was from, how I ended up here, and my interest in this area of research—it basically came down to a mash up of all my hobbies and interests when I was growing up—play (Lego, guns, bow &amp; arrows), fun &amp; art (drawing cartoons, painting, paper-mache), school was all about play and fun-ness growing up in Toronto, board games (Monopoly and Cluedo was my fav), interactive books (back then we had '<i>Choose Your Own Adventure'</i> books, and '<i>Where's Wally?'</i>), video games (Mario Bros, Street Fighter! Crime solving <i>Role Playing Games</i>...), online games <i>MMORPGs</i>&nbsp;(World of Warcraft, Sims), action based <i>RPGs</i> (Metal Gear, Resident Evil), design (majored in visual arts &amp; new media design), positive psychology (took an introductory course in psychology in university, surprisingly also Buddhism and its philosophies), creativity (was what got me in trouble ALL THE TIME)....now innovation...and how to manage it...CSM MA Innovation Management.</div><div><br/>After listening to me, and hearing about my research, Sally took me through some of the usual IDEO processes and methodologies, but informatively re-framing them in an organizational design context. While showing me some presentations with case studies and past projects, she explained that organizational design is included as part of the services they offer to clients, along with product and/or service design. She carefully explained that innovating in organizational design is to act as a support to the delivery of something else:<br/><b><i><br/></i></b></div><div><b><i><font size="3">"Innovation is not a goal. Innovation is in service of something else."&nbsp;</font></i></b>— IDEO<br/><br/></div><div>I now better understand the role of organizational designers in IDEO, they innovate around a product or service to help smoothen the process and increase the probability of this product of service to reach the market and have a real impact on the users or to create new value.&nbsp;</div><div><br/>She stresses the point of how successful innovation means answering 3 questions:<ol><li>Why innovate? (Have a clear innovation mission..."lets innovate!" is not enough)</li>
<li>What kinds of innovation? (Have a clear innovation strategy)</li>
<li>How to innovate? (A designed "innovation ecology" to support people)</li>
</ol>
The former two points seem logical, it would be fundamental to ask yourself <i>why</i> and <i>what</i>&nbsp;an organisation wants to be addressing. I'm interested in IDEO's <b><i>'</i></b><i><b>How'</b></i>. And so I asked...<br/><br/></div><div><font size="3"><b><br/></b></font></div><div><font size="3"><b>IDEO considers 12&nbsp;organizational&nbsp;elements that make up an innovation ecology:</b></font><div><br/><div style="text-align: center;"><img src="/photos/111012-IDEO-CPB-Map2.png" alt="" width="498" height="462" class="frktlse-img" /><br/></div><div style="text-align: center;"><i>Adaptation of IDEO's Innovation Ecology</i></div><div><br/></div><div><br/></div>IDEO believes, when these elements are taken into consideration as organizations design&nbsp;their&nbsp;innovation ecologies, it will enhance motivation and engagement—simply to enable employees to enjoy going to work, making it a pleasurable experience.&nbsp;</div><div><br/></div><div>More and more companies are beginning to realize the importance of employees' well-being—his or her psychological climate that will directly affect organizational climate and therefore its processes, people and performance. IDEO's 12 elements further support the outcomes of many research studies revolving around creativity, organizational behavior, performance, motivation, which are all contributing factors toward a healthy workplace.</div><div><br/></div><div>Looking at the 12 elements over 4 areas, I tried to map the elements of the new model of Change Play Business across these 4 areas. The findings are very much in support of one another. Many of these elements are further backed up by a myriad of research outcomes which I have collected over a range of literature review—creativity, performance, engagement,&nbsp;organizational&nbsp;behavior in relation to innovation potential.&nbsp;</div><div><br/></div><div>
<img src="/photos/111012-IDEO-CPB-Map-Compare.png" alt="" width="498" height="957" class="frktlse-img" /><br/><br/><br/></div></div>Villie TsangWed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:00 +0300http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/12-dot-10-dot-11
http://villietsang.com/innovation-research/research-journal/12-dot-10-dot-11